Irrational Games will soon be releasing Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich on an anxious public. While the time-traveling tale of the single player game is no doubt one of the reasons people are sweaty with anticipation, there's also the considerable multiplayer modes to consider as well. We've been putting the game through its paces this week (both online and off) and wanted to share with you the basics of multiplayer.

The matching service is all contained right there in the game itself so you can log on and find and create matches very easily. Browsing through matches allows you to sort by game type, ping, number of players and password status. Oh, you can also search for games by the session name.

There are a variety of multiplayer modes to choose from here. Naturally there's the straight up Deathmatch. Coming in both team and solo forms, the deathmatch in Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich is very straightforward. Players score one point per KO in the specified time limit. Heroic Revivals are allowed but you'll need to use them wisely. If the single deathmatch sessions aren't enough for you, you can play the game's Arena mode. This is a series of five deathmatch games played in a row with the same characters and the same maps. The player who wins the majority of games here can claim the overall victory.

Massacre mode is a bit different. In this mode, you'll take four heroes against your opponents and score one point for each of their heroes you knock out. For every one of you heroes that's knocked out, you lose a point. You can play this mode with two to four players in team-based or free-for-all formats. The trick with this mode is that a KO'ed hero respawns back at their starting location. The player or team with the most points at the end of the time limit is the winner.

The last multiplayer mode is a tag team match. You'll pick up to four heroes to fight for you but only one can be in the action at a given time. If you want to tag another hero in, you'll have to burn the current hero's heroic opportunity. If the current hero has no heroic opportunity, you can suicide to get a new hero in. The winner in this case is the player who's scores more KOs and lasted the longest.

There's also something called Story Mode. In Story Mode, the host can actually craft a scenario using the above game modes and set up the teams however he or she likes. The host also writes a brief description of the scenario which goes out to all players. There are two special modes that are only available in story mode and only playable by two players or by four players in two teams. Destruction mode tasks one team with destroying an object (car, shield generator, etc.) that the other team is defending. Leader mode is pretty much a straight deathmatch but one hero on each team is designated the leader. Knocking out the leader gives your team 10 points and ends the game immediately.

When selecting heroes for a multiplayer match, you'll need to consider whether or not they're balanced for multiplayer. Some powers are unsuitable for multiplayer so don't be surprised if some of your heroes have been toned down a bit. If the session host selects the "balanced" option when setting up the server, no player may select a hero that with a cost of more than 6000 points.

With only two exceptions, the multiplayer game functions exactly like the single player game. First, you can't pause the multiplayer game under any circumstances. But to help compensate for the lack of a pause function, you'll actually see the character portraits of your enemies at the bottom of the screen. In addition to clicking on enemies on the main screen, you can click on these portraits to order attacks. This makes it very easy to focus all your heroes on one enemy or manage heroes in different locations.

Remember, in addition to the various multiplayer modes available here, FFv3R also comes with The Rumble Room.